commonwealth

at least the Aussie government is not bleeding in runaway deficit. https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...au&rank=108#as the politicians here have a fetish for surpluses, Gillard is desperate to attain surplus by next election, and people expect the government to have surpluses. the states are under pressure to maintain an investment-grade credit rating.

and there are good signs Australians are becoming more prudent and learning to save more money (to the horror of Myer and Harvey Norman) http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-e...401-1crp3.html , notwithstanding a strong employment market and relatively high per capita income http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ta#cite_note-2

i definitely would bet Australia is the envy of many developed countries. not only is the economy strong, the liveability indicators are also high.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/15/i...countries.html

commonwealth

nevertheless, the UK economy only briefly outperformed Germany

Rambi

I'm not sure that logic leads anywhere. 3 layers of government is quite common in the UK and they have departments for everything.

I suspect there is little difference in the public to private workers ratio for both countries.

bcworld

That was essentially my point.

bcworld

Nice graph.

So over an even longer period of time, during which the UK was supposedly giving up on its manufacturing industry it ovetook France on a GDP per capita basis and at the end of it has a GDP per capita which it appears to be, in percentage terms closer to Germany's than it was in 1970...only about 2-3% less. Am I missing something. Rhetorical question, please no one answer...I can't keep going at this!

commonwealth

blowing bubbles might be the explanation

moneypenny20

It didn't help Michael Jackson much though.

deb68

Some how thats very original and funny but at the same time it's a disgusting thought, i mean a half human doing that to a half minkey
He leaves behind a piano you know, the monkey i mean

asprilla

tsk tsk.

THR

Is the cost of living in Australia higher than in the UK? Of course, a sparsely populated country with vast distances is always a more expensive place to live in than a similar compact country but there are other factors at play as well.

Pollyana

In relation to wages, yes. You only have to read the two dozen threads a week on here about it to see that the cost of living here isn't as cheap as it was a few years back.

THR

I'm very interested in this point about the ratio of public sector workers compared to other countries. My understanding is that federalism is expensive, it is an expensive system of government to have another tier in between the central government and the local unit of government. However, Australia is such a vast country that it couldn't function as a unitary state either and such an arrangement would cause a lot of resentment by people who live in hte so-called fringes. Therefore, even though federalism costs money, it is a bit of a must for vast countries like Australia, Canada or the USA.

In a country like the UK which is very densely populated but much smaller than Australia the idea of federalism would only be rejected as another unnecessary layer of government. Japan is a unitary country but relatively small in area and no-one has suggested that any problems they have could be due to not handing out power to the regions.

commonwealth

May he rest in peace my beloved artist.

commonwealth

As well the Australian Federal and State govts have different powers / responsibilities. It's not as if the Constitution bestowed them the same redundant powers. The Federal govt is a balancing power against the divergent interests of the States while the States do mainly the groundwork.

I also reiterate the Australian govt has a strong budgetary position and a strong balance sheet. As well there are pressures to meet the budget and i have read news articles about job cuts in various agencies. Thankfully the private sector in Aust is strong enough to absorb these.

This is something Mr Cameron is hoping to happen, but the UK private sector realistically is not that strong (except maybe in fin services) to absorb the ex public workers. I wonder how many more times they will revise downwards again the gdp growth projections.

Rambi

Ah. It could be read in different ways.